Correction

Previously

Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano has ended his relationship with an outside security company that was linked to a failed plot to smuggle Moammar Gadhafi’s son to a resort community near Puerto Vallarta, city officials said.

Bejarano was listed as executive vice president for law enforcement training on the website of Veritas Worldwide Solutions, although he said it was an arms-length relationship.

Two associates of a related company, Veritas Worldwide Security, have been detained in Mexico and authorities have identified them as part of a criminal network planning the smuggling of Saadi Gadhafi, 38, who is wanted by Interpol for alleged brutality in suppressing the Libyan uprising.

“Chief Bejarano has my complete confidence and trust,” City Manager Jim Sandoval said in a statement. “He has not done any work for Veritas nor has he received any compensation. His contract stipulated that he was to review curriculum and assist in hiring personnel for a public safety training facility. He has ended his relationship with the firm.”

To follow up, The Watchdog asked what steps the city took to verify that Bejarano received no compensation from the company, and spokeswoman Anne Steinberger said, “It is not relevant to the city whether or not the chief received money from this venture.”

City Council members stood by Bejarano.

“I think it was a mistake for the chief to associate himself with a company that apparently he didn’t know much about, but everybody makes a mistake every once a while,” Councilwoman Patricia Aguilar said. “As far as I’m concerned I’m willing to consider this a mistake and move on.”

Councilman Steve Castaneda said he believes the chief trustworthy, but wants more information.

“This thing reads like an intrigue novel,” he said, referring to The Watchdog’s story on Bejarano and the company. “We need to find out what the facts are and what involvement financial, professional and otherwise that our police chief has.”

Veritas Worldwide Security CEO Gregory Gillispie confirmed for The Watchdog that two of the people detained in Mexico — Gabriela Dávila Huerta and Pierre Christian Flensborg — are associates who were there to collect money from the Canadian woman identified by authorities as the mastermind of the smuggling plot, Cynthia Vanier.

Gillispie said Vanier owed payment for a trip he arranged for her to Tunisia, which borders Libya.

The Gillispie firm was linked closely until this week to Veritas Worldwide Solutions, headed by CEO Joseph Casas, a San Diego area attorney who has represented Bejarano in court.

Casas said he is distancing himself from Veritas Worldwide Security, including removing references to it from his website.

“I sent the request to take it off, just to make it abundantly clear that we don’t have a relationship with that company,” Casas said.

Casas issued a news release Thursday stating the Worldwide Solutions company had no involvement with the alleged smuggling operation.

“Veritas takes this allegation seriously and is conducting an internal investigation into why our company is being associated with this situation and whether or not any of our personnel were involved,” the statement read. “If Veritas determines that any of our personnel are found to have any involvement with this operation, they will be terminated on the spot.”

Casas said he had no idea what Gillispie was working on with his other operations.

Bejarano statement to city officials

I want to make it clear that I agreed in January 2011 to serve as a consultant (VP for Law Enforcement Training) and was a small shareholder ($500), when the company was trying to get started in early 2011. Other than the CEO, Joe Casas being a professional acquaintance, my last conversation with him reference providing consultant services (reviewing curriculum for law enforcement training and assisting in the selection of trainers) was in early 2011. I never provided any services, consulting, etc and have not received any compensation. In fact, it was my understanding the training center that was going to be established in Texas never opened. I was surprised to learn yesterday that the company is actually operating in some form. Additionally, I have never met or talked to any of the alleged "associates" of the security company involved in the alleged plan to assist Gaddafi's son in traveling to Mexico.

“I can’t comment on what they’ve been doing, what companies they’ve been working with or whether or not they’ve been doing things with other companies,” Casas said. “If they have, that’s on them. Whether or not they were involved ... to put it mildly, if they were, we disavow any relationship with that company, period.”

Casas said he hasn’t talked to Gillispie about Veritas business in “three or four or five months.”

“We had different philosophies on business and more importantly on the type of business that we were engaged in,” Casas said. “He wanted to pursue other ventures that didn’t fall within scope of our operation, mainly chartering airplanes.”

Casas said Bejarano was going to provide consulting services to Casas and Gillispie’s company, Veritas Worldwide Solutions, LLC, but Casas said the operation never got off the ground.

“We haven’t made any money. That’s the funny thing,” Casas said. “Our company was founded by consummate patriots. All of us have prior military service, and we would never condone any smuggling of a war criminal like Gadhafi.”